Alright, I’ll admit that I am a word nerd, especially when it comes to Greek conjunctions. These are the function words like “therefore” and “because” that tell you how to connect one statement with the one that follows. If you look at Dan Wallace’s description in Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, you’ll quickly see that there are a number of places where the Greek conjunctions don’t match up very well with a single English counterpart. This is where drilling down on the word can really pay some dividends.

I was asked recently about the different uses of γάρ, so I’ll illustrate with this. In the Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament, I claim that γάρ introduces something that strengthens or supports what precedes. Most of the memory verses we learn begin with “for” like John 3:16, Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:8-9, the list could go on for a long time. If you run a Bible Word Study, the “Translation” portion of the report will quickly show you that γάρ is nearly always translated as “for”.

Clicking on any of the other words will pull up a list of those instances where γάρ was translated with something else. I clicked on “indeed” (screenshot), resulting in the list of the six instances where the ESV translated it this way. If I wanted to find out what other Greek words are translated as “for”, I just need to hover over the blue part of the ring labeled “for”.

Doing so give me all this information in a convenient pop-up. Another way to get the same information is to run a Bible Word Study report on “for”, it will give you the same information as the preview (screenshot). Another helpful way of getting at the same kind of information is to do a Morphology Search. All you need to do is click the “Search” tab, select “Morph” in the upper right corner, then select the text you want to search from the pull-down menu. I am using the Nestle-Aland 27th (NA27) with Logos morphology. This search will show me every occurrence of γάρ in the Greek NT. (screenshot)

In the upper right hand corner of the results window in one of my favorite Logos 4 features, a tool that has had a huge impact on how efficiently I can find what I am looking for—the “Analysis” tab. What this does is allow me to organize all of the results (1041 of them!) based on all of the different kinds of information that can be known about that word. Take a look. (screenshot)

All I need to do to reorganize the results by something other than the canonical order in which they occur is to grab one of the column headers and drag it to the space where the gray text indicates. I can organize by follows by dragging the “Next Context”, Louw-Nida sense, part of speech, or any other kind of information which is annotated to this word in this text. I want to show off a cool aspect of the Logos Morphology, so I’ll drag that over. The Logos Morph subdivides conjunctions based on the function that they perform in the text. The function in the context is one of the biggest determiners of how the word will be translated. (screenshot)

One last thing that really makes this report useful—the ability to hide results. This lets me see at a glance just how many times γάρ functions in one role versus another. All I need to do is click the arrow next to “adverbial causal” or any other heading to hide the detail. Here’s what I get:

I can learn from this that the primary function of γάρ is as an adverbial conjunction indicating cause, whereas the other major use is as an logical conjunction with an explanatory sense. If I do not know what exactly these terms mean, I can unhide the verses and take a look at the difference in one passage versus another. I was curious about when γάρ is considered a “particle” so I unhide them to see if I could find a pattern. (screenshot)

Everyone one of the occurs in a question introduced by τί or μή. This made me wonder if there were instances where these question words preceded γάρ where it was not considered a particle but a conjunction. All I need to do is drag the “Conjunction Sub-type” and “Part of Speech” off the header, and replace it with “Previous context.” Then I hide the results that I am not interested in to narrow down what I am looking at. (screenshot)

It turns out that there are quite a few I would have missed in the other view. Now I will grant you that I am a huge word nerd, but try fooling around with the “Analysis” view next time you do a search. If you are doing a Bible Word Study, try jumping off a cliff by copying and pasting the lemma into the Morph search, and analyzing the results. Who knows, you might find some of the wonderful benefits of being a word nerd!

When I was in graduate school, I had the privilege of taking systematic theology of J.I. Packer. He started every class lecture by saying, “Arise, friends, let us sing the Doxology!” After singing and a word of prayer, he would remind us, “The goal of theology, friends, is doxology.” That is, our view of God should inspire us to worship God.

Dr. Packer’s devotional approach to theology was evident even in his choice of textbook for the course – Millard J. Erickson’s Christian Theology. Here’s just an excerpt:

“Because God is a person (indeed, he is pictured as our Father), our relationship with him has a dimension of warmth and understanding. God is not a bureau or a department, a machine or a computer that automatically supplies the needs of people. He is a knowing, loving, good Father. He can be approached. He can be spoken to, and he in turn speaks” (Christian Theology, pg. 296).

Now that’s the kind of doctrine that moves us from, “You’re right, God” to “You’re good, Father.”

Zondervan is one of the leading publishers of Bible commentaries, reference works, and books written by today’s top evangelical scholars. Last September, we announced a new partnership with Zondervan, and offered 87 of their books through our Pre-Pub program.

Now, seven months later, we are only a few days from having Zondervan’s titles available for Logos Bible Software. On Monday, April 5, we’ll begin processing all the Pre-Pub orders. If you haven’t yet pre-ordered, this is your last chance to get the Zondervan books while they’re on Pre-Pub!

The best deal is on the 87-volume Zondervan Bible Reference Bundle. With this bundle, you get Zondervan’s bestselling books, commentaries, and reference works at the best price. It’s heavily discounted for a few more days, so this is your last chance to order the entire bundle before the price goes up on Monday, April 5.

This giant collection includes Zondervan’s bestselling titles at a steep discount:

Remember, the price goes up on Monday April 5th, so pre-order now to lock in the Pre-Pub price!

Are you a Pradis user?

If you’re a Pradis user, we want to make your transition to Logos Bible Software as smooth as possible. We realize that you might have spent years building up the titles in your Pradis library, and you’ve made a significant financial investment in buying those titles.

For registered Pradis users only, Zondervan has authorized a special discount of an additional 40% off the newly-lowered Pre-Pub prices. The discounts are designed to help you transition to Logos Bible Software editions for the same books you’ve already purchased in Pradis. If you’re a registered Pradis user, this is your chance to get your books in Logos Bible Software at rock-bottom prices. Learn more about discounts for registered Pradis users.

Approximately one third of the Hebrew Bible is poetry and needs to be interpreted with a sensitivity to the devices used by Hebrew poets. However, most books covering the grammar and syntax of the Hebrew language are devoted almost entirely to prose, and leave investigations of poetry to more specialized books.
Those using Logos Bible Software to study the Hebrew Bible have a great selection of these prose grammars available to them, from Waltke and O’Connor’s An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax and the classic Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley Hebrew Grammar to Joüon-Muraoka’s A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew and Christo van der Merwe’s A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar. But until now, there have been few works made available for studying Hebrew poetry. Happily, the news isn’t all grim: a number of collections are now listed on the pre-publication page that can round out your Hebrew library nicely.The Hebrew Studies Collection, consisting of seven volumes from the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, includes no less than four books on Hebrew poetry: Traditional Techniques in Classical Hebrew Verse, Classical Hebrew Poetry, A Guide to its Techniques, Directions in Biblical Hebrew Poetry, and Structural Analysis of Biblical and Canaanite Poetry. Parallelism, word pairs, figurative language, metre and a host of other rhetorical and structural devices are explored in this collection, making it an excellent first stop for exploring Hebrew poetics.Word Order Variation in Biblical Hebrew Poetry, by Nicholas Lunn. Changing the expected word order is one method the biblical authors use to highlight or emphasize certain aspects of their sentences. Word order has oft been studied for Hebrew prose, but this book explores how those dynamics play out in the poetic genre.
The BHS Helps Collection features Luis Alonso Schokel’s A Manual of Hebrew Poetics. The manual is not primarily a reference book but rather a volume of initiation into the practice of analysis. Among the poetic techniques discussed are sound and sonority, rhythm, imagery, figures of speech, dialogue and monologue, development and composition.Biblical Languages: Reference Grammars and Introductions (19 vols.) includes George Buchanan Gray’s classic The Forms of Hebrew Poetry, which includes extensive discussions of parallelism, rhythm, and alphabetic acrostics. Also included is Wickes’ Two Treatises on the Accentuation of the Old Testament, a study in the cantillation system of the Hebrew Bible.
I encourage those interested in studying the other third of the Hebrew Bible to take a look at some of these collections.

The collection of writings known as the Early Church Fathers (37 vols) is included in Scholar’s Silver, Gold and Platinum collections, and also in Portfolio (LE editions).
That is a large collection. It’s great, and it is very handy to have indexed by reference and topic. I’ve personally benefited from it many times over the years. But it is tough to dig into and understand as a whole, particularly if you’re not familiar with the major writers. What to do?One place to start out is H.B. Swete’s Patristic Study (sold separately; not included in base collections). This is a small book, but it gives an overview of people and themes in the first five centuries of the church. The product page gives a good description:

Patristic Study focuses almost exclusively on the Fathers of the first five Centuries. After reviewing these writers, Dr. Swete proceeds in the closing chapters to suggest methods of employing the work of the Fathers for the particular purposes of those in different lines of religious and theological study.

Swete’s book is handy to use as an less technical introduction to the writings of the Church Fathers found in the much larger Early Church Fathers (37 vols) collection.
What about other titles in this area? Logos has several available:

Getting to Know the Church Fathers; An Evangelical Introduction is a title on prepub (at the time this blog post was written). It distills information about the person instead of only the writings the person is responsible for. So figures in the early church like Augustine, Ignatius, Origen, Perpetua and Tertullian (and more) are described in ways that make their writings more accessible.

The Apostolic Fathers Greek-English Interlinear is also presently gathering interest as a prepub. Lexicons like BDAG, TDNT and TLNT (as well as several commentaries) cite the writings of the Apostolic Fathers all the time. If you don’t remember as much of your Greek as you’d like, or if you haven’t had a chance to take Greek yet, sometimes an interlinear can be helpful in tracking down these cross-references and examining word usages in context.

I’d better stop now — but can you tell I’m excited about this stuff? Logos has a goodly amount of titles available in this area (even a chunk of volumes from Patrologia Graeca on prepub!) so I’ll have to blog again about this in the future to point out some more stuff that you might be interested in.

The Lexham English Bible (LEB) is a new translation of the Bible into English, and one of the newest additions to a suite of resources from Logos which connect the original language texts to formal translations. New translations of the Bible into English appear every few years. So what’s so special about the LEB?

Your Second Bible

The LEB complements your primary translation. Its transparent design and literal rendering helps you see the text of God’s Word from another angle. Whether you use the ESV, NIV, KJV, or another popular English translation, the entire translation process helps you identify difficult texts, idiomatic phrases, grammatical issues, and more. The result? A better understanding of the Bible in English—whatever translation you use.

In Logos Bible Software, interlinears reveal the path from the original language texts to formal translation. This type of information, used in concert with your primary translation, helps you dig deeper into the text of the original languages. The entire translation process is visible and transparent—you can see the entire process.

These books provide a general introduction (by Scot McKnight, no less!) to the interpretation of the New Testament, as well as genre-specific methods and materials for doing exegesis. One thing I didn’t know (but learned from reading the product page on Logos.com — good stuff there!) was that:

The vision for this collection comes from Gordon Fee’s New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors. By developing handbooks for each genre and book collection, this collection operates as an extended treatment of Fee’s narrower scope.

Fee’s work is detailed and valuable; to have his methodology distilled and applied to these particular genres is a helpful thing. It’s like getting a jump start in New Testament exegesis. And to have it done by folks of the caliber of Scot McKnight, Thomas Schreiner, and Gary Burge? Even better. Check it out.

Speaking of New Testament exegesis, another title that you might find helpful is Donald Hagner’s introduction, New Testament Exegesis and Research: A Guide for Seminarians. This is geared toward seminarians, but helpful for everyone. If I understand correctly how the book came about, it is basically the information that Hagner gives incoming seminarians, to get them properly grounded at the start of their seminary career.

For years, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary has been one of our most requested commentary sets. Now, we’re pleased to announce that it will be available in Logos Bible Software in just a few days.

The Gold Medallion Award-winning Expositor’s Bible Commentary, published by Zondervan, is a major contribution to the study and understanding of the Scriptures. Providing pastors and Bible students with a comprehensive and scholarly tool for the exposition of the Scriptures and the teaching and proclamation of their message, this 12-volume reference work has become a staple of seminary and college libraries and pastors’ studies worldwide.

Lots of others. Head on over to the product page to see the complete list.

Each volume in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary contains an introduction to authorship and historical issues, outlines of each book of the Bible, exposition and notes on the entire Bible, detailed bibliographies on every book of the Bible, and more. It also covers textual issues, and transliteration and translation of Semitic and Greek words make the more technical notes accessible to readers unacquainted with the biblical languages. In short, this is the premiere evangelical commentary on the Bible, and it will be available in Logos Bible Software in just a few days. Head on over to the product page to place your pre-order before it ships on Monday.

Are You a Pradis User?

If you’re a Pradis user, we want to make your transition to Logos Bible Software as smooth as possible. We realize that you might have spent years building up the titles in your Pradis library, and you’ve made a significant financial investment in buying those titles.

For registered Pradis users only, Zondervan has authorized a special discount on The Expositor’s Bible Commentary in addition to the Pre-Pub discount. The discount is designed to help you transition to Logos Bible Software. If you’re a registered Pradis user, this is your chance to get your books in Logos Bible Software at rock-bottom prices. Remember, the discount applies only for Pradis users. To learn how to get your discount, read the previous blog post for all the details.

Do you read Finnish? Or do you know someone who does? Or do you just like free books, even if you can’t read them? :)

We’ve recently released the Logos edition of Raamattu—a Bible from the Finnish Bible Society. Best of all, we’re able to offer it for free.

The first Finnish translation of the Bible appeared in 1548 by Mikael Agricola. He used Luther’s German Bible as the translation base. In 1632, the Bible was again translated into Finnish, but this time using the original language texts. The complete version appeared in 1642, and new editions were issued in 1685, 1758, and 1776. In the early twentieth century, the need for an updated translation of the Bible into Finnish had become apparent. Work on the new translation was begun in 1911 at the initiative of the Finnish Bible Society and the Finnish Lutheran Church. The first translation work was finished in 1933, and the completed version was published in 1938.

Go the product page. Click Add to Cart (or just add it straight to your cart from here). Proceed through the checkout process and click “Submit Order.” If you don’t have a credit card on file, you’ll still need to enter your credit card information. Don’t worry, you won’t be charged anything. It’s the only way to finish the checkout process in our current system.

In Logos 4, type “Update Now” into the Command Bar. Logos 4 will find and begin downloading new resources, and the Logos icon will appear in your system tray while this is happening. When it’s finished, you’ll be asked to restart Logos 4.

After you restart Logos 4, you’ll be able to access your new Finnish Bible. If you have a Logos 4 base package, you can also access it on your iPhone or iPod Touch using the Logos iPhone app!

If you’re not a Logos 4 user yet, be sure to visit the custom upgrade discount calculator to see what discounts you qualify for on an upgrade to a brand new Logos 4 base package.

Logos 3 / Libronix Users:

If you’re still using Libronix, here are the steps to follow to get your free book:

Step 1:Log in to your logos.com account. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to create one.

Step 2: Make sure that your Libronix Customer ID is associated with your Logos.com account. Go to My Account, enter your Libronix Customer ID, and click “Confirm.” If it’s already there, no need to do anything. (If you don’t know your Libronix Customer ID, you can find it in Libronix by going to Help | About Libronix DLS.)

Step 3: Go the product page. Click Add to Cart (or just add it straight to your cart from here). Proceed through the checkout process and click “Submit Order.” If you don’t have a credit card on file, you’ll still need to enter your credit card information. Don’t worry, you won’t be charged anything. It’s the only way to finish the checkout process in our current system.

Step 4: Unlock and download your new book. If you’re on a Windows machine, just click the orange “Unlock & Download” button. If you’re on a Mac, just synchronize your licenses (Tools | Library Management | Synchronize Licenses) and manually put the book file in your resources folder (Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Libronix DLS/Resources on the startup volume).

Step 5: Start using your new book! Open Libronix, open My Library, then type Raamattu to find it.

Spread the word! If you have Finnish-speaking friends, let them know that they can get a Finnish Bible for free.

If you examine this page carefully, you’ll see that the top section contains Greek text of a portion of Esther. Under that is a critical apparatus – a shorthand method of documenting manuscript evidence, showing which manuscripts agree with the text above and which manuscripts disagree, and how they disagree.
Then under the apparatus there is second section of Greek text (market by an L in the margin) followed by a second apparatus. We’ve seen something like this before. The ancient Greek book of Daniel, for example, exists in both the Old Greek and the Theodotion versions, and other editions of the LXX, such as Rahlfs and Swete, have presented both versions of that text either on facing pages or with one version on top of the other. Similar parallel texts are presented for the shorter and longer versions of Tobit and those parts of Joshua and Judges where codices Alexandrinus and Vaticanus disagree. But I’ve never seen this phenomenon in a printed edition of Esther before.
The marginal ‘L’ indicates that the text is thought by some scholars to be a Lucianic recension, or revision, of the Septuagint. Lucian was a Christian martyr who died in 312 AD and was famous for comparing the various Greek translations with the Hebrew Scriptures and preparing new Greek texts that were in greater agreement with the Hebrew originals.
However, the L-Text of Esther is different from the Septuagint text in some surprising ways that seem, to some scholars, inconsistent with the Lucianic reforms. The LXX and the L-Text both contain the so-called ‘Additions to Esther’ not found in the Hebrew Massoretic Text (MT), and the L-Text and LXX are significantly similar for those Additions. But in places where the L-Text and the LXX are clearly translating the same Hebrew, there is very little word for word correspondence. And at several junctures, it seems that the L-Text must be translating a different Hebrew source all-together. Carey Moore in his Anchor Bible volume on Esther, and elsewhere, has argued that the L-Text of Esther is really a fresh translation from a Hebrew original that is, at points, very different from the Hebrew (MT) that we have today. Followers of this line of reasoning usually refer to this as the Alpha-Text or A-Text of Esther, rather than the L-Text. If Moore is right, then the A-Text of Esther isn’t so much useful for determining the original text of the Massoretic version of Esther, but is rather more valuable for illuminating a version of Esther that no longer exists in any Hebrew manuscript known today.
Right now the Göttingen Septuagint is gathering interest on our prepublication program, listed at less than 1/10th of the retail price of the print volumes! The prepub has been well received, but we still need a few more orders to confirm that there is enough interest in getting the best Septuagint available into Logos Bible Software. So if you were sitting on the fence with this one wondering what you’d get that isn’t already in Rahlfs’ or Swete’s LXX, the A-Text of Esther is one example of the cool, useful things you’ll only see in Göttingen.
P.S. If you’re interested in the Septuagint, you might take a peek at Biblical Languages: Reference Grammars and Introductions (19 Vols.), which contains three volumes on the Septuagint: Swete’s classic Introduction (which examines the Lucianic recension on pages 80-86), the introductory grammar and chrestomathy by Conybeare and Stock and the reference grammar by Thackeray. If you want to lock in the early bird price, now is the time.